[Nyasa Times] Malawi opposition supporters erupted into wild scenes of celebrations on Friday after the Supreme Court on Friday in a unanimous decision upheld an earlier constitutional court ruling that declared President Peter Mutharika was "not duly elected" in a disputed 2019 vote.

The head of China’s cabinet-level office that oversees Hong Kong affairs has urged the city’s leader to examine possible ways of enacting a national security law and to ensure that elections for the legislature this year are conducted in a fair manner.The meeting between Xia Baolong, director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office (HKMAO), and Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor was held in Shenzhen at the end of last month, according to sources.Hong Kong is facing mounting pressure…

Despite the strict lockdown requirements on voting, turnout was higher than any parliamentary elections held since 1992.

As a rule, if the economy is going well then US presidents get re-elected. If it's going badly, they lose. But will that hold in a global health emergency?

1

Colorado Republican Party Chair Ken Buck, a U.S. representative from Windsor, pressured a local party official to submit incorrect election results to set the primary ballot for a state Senate seat, according to an audio recording of a conference call obtained by The Denver Post.

Colorado Republican Chairman Ken Buck is facing criticism from within his own party after revelations that he pressured another party official to submit incorrect election results — and then spent party money to defend the move. At least two party executives say they were surprised to learn Buck — who’s also a U.S. representative — […]

The Weld County GOP chairman has filed a complaint with the local district attorney and the Secretary of State’s Office accusing an aide to Republican U.S. Rep. Ken Buck and three others of election fraud and corruption.

KOLKATA: For the next couple of months from now, the Mamata Banerjee government will not acquire any land from farmers even if it is required for government projects. The message has already reached government departments after the chief minister’s press meet with Anna Hazare in New Delhi on Wednesday. The Trinamool chief will champion the cause of farmers as she did earlier. All infrastructure projects in Bengal will therefore, have to wait till the Lok Sabha polls are over. Mamata Banerjee doesn’t want any land controversy before the elections. State departments have been asked not to place any proposals for land acquisition for the time being. This even after the […]

A statistical technique called multi-level regression and post-stratification (MRP) correctly predicted the last UK election when other polls failed. This is how it works

The far-right winner of the first round of Brazil's presidential election wants to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement and cut down the Amazon rainforest

Brexit may seem important right now, but whoever wins the election will be in charge halfway to 2030 – a crucial time in efforts to limit dangerous warming, says Jacob Aron

Concerns about adversaries hacking democracy abound, but it’s sheer incompetence we should really be worried about, writes Annalee Newitz

Aides to U.S. President Trump say their 2020 campaign will now be focus on two themes: Trump is the only candidate who can resurrect the economy and that Democrats will not be as tough on China, a country Trump is blaming for the pandemic.

Title: U.S. Workplaces Roiled by Post-Election Discord, Poll Finds
Category: Health News
Created: 5/3/2017 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 5/4/2017 12:00:00 AM

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ABSTRACT

Recognition modes of individual T cell receptors (TCRs) are well studied, but factors driving the selection of TCR repertoires from primary through persistent human virus infections are less well understood. Using deep sequencing, we demonstrate a high degree of diversity of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-specific clonotypes in acute infectious mononucleosis (AIM). Only 9% of unique clonotypes detected in AIM persisted into convalescence; the majority (91%) of unique clonotypes detected in AIM were not detected in convalescence and were seeming replaced by equally diverse "de novo" clonotypes. The persistent clonotypes had a greater probability of being generated than nonpersistent clonotypes due to convergence recombination of multiple nucleotide sequences to encode the same amino acid sequence, as well as the use of shorter complementarity-determining regions 3 (CDR3s) with fewer nucleotide additions (i.e., sequences closer to germ line). Moreover, the two most immunodominant HLA-A2-restricted EBV epitopes, BRLF1₁₀₉ and BMLF1₂₈₀, show highly distinct antigen-specific public (i.e., shared between individuals) features. In fact, TCRα CDR3 motifs played a dominant role, while TCRβ played a minimal role, in the selection of TCR repertoire to an immunodominant EBV epitope, BRLF1. This contrasts with the majority of previously reported repertoires, which appear to be selected either on TCRβ CDR3 interactions with peptide/major histocompatibility complex (MHC) or in combination with TCRα CDR3. Understanding of how TCR-peptide-MHC complex interactions drive repertoire selection can be used to develop optimal strategies for vaccine design or generation of appropriate adoptive immunotherapies for viral infections in transplant settings or for cancer.

IMPORTANCE Several lines of evidence suggest that TCRα and TCRβ repertoires play a role in disease outcomes and treatment strategies during viral infections in transplant patients and in cancer and autoimmune disease therapy. Our data suggest that it is essential that we understand the basic principles of how to drive optimum repertoires for both TCR chains, α and β. We address this important issue by characterizing the CD8 TCR repertoire to a common persistent human viral infection (EBV), which is controlled by appropriate CD8 T cell responses. The ultimate goal would be to determine if the individuals who are infected asymptomatically develop a different TCR repertoire than those that develop the immunopathology of AIM. Here, we begin by doing an in-depth characterization of both CD8 T cell TCRα and TCRβ repertoires to two immunodominant EBV epitopes over the course of AIM, identifying potential factors that may be driving their selection.

The question of the relative evolutionary roles of adaptive and nonadaptive processes has been a central debate in population genetics for nearly a century. While advances have been made in the theoretical development of the underlying models, and statistical methods for estimating their parameters from large-scale genomic data, a framework for an appropriate null model remains elusive. A model incorporating evolutionary processes known to be in constant operation, genetic drift (as modulated by the demographic history of the population) and purifying selection, is lacking. Without such a null model, the role of adaptive processes in shaping within- and between-population variation may not be accurately assessed. Here, we investigate how population size changes and the strength of purifying selection affect patterns of variation at "neutral" sites near functional genomic components. We propose a novel statistical framework for jointly inferring the contribution of the relevant selective and demographic parameters. By means of extensive performance analyses, we quantify the utility of the approach, identify the most important statistics for parameter estimation, and compare the results with existing methods. Finally, we reanalyze genome-wide population-level data from a Zambian population of Drosophila melanogaster, and find that it has experienced a much slower rate of population growth than was inferred when the effects of purifying selection were neglected. Our approach represents an appropriate null model, against which the effects of positive selection can be assessed.

Recent advances in the study and clinical applications of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) are limited by practical considerations of sample collection. Whole-genome sequencing (WGS) is increasingly used for analysis of ctDNA, identifying copy-number alterations and fragmentation patterns. We hypothesized that low-depth/shallow WGS (sWGS) data may be generated from minute amounts of cell-free DNA, and that fragment-size selection may remove contaminating genomic DNA from small blood volumes. Dried blood spots have practical advantages for sample collection, may facilitate serial sampling, and could support novel study designs in humans and animal models.We developed a protocol for the isolation and analysis of cell-free DNA from dried blood spots using filter paper cards and bead-based size selection. DNA extracted and size-selected from dried spots was analyzed using sWGS and polymerase chain reaction (PCR).Analyzing a 50 μL dried blood spot from frozen whole blood of a patient with melanoma, we identified ctDNA based on the presence of tumor-specific somatic copy-number alterations, and found a fragment-size profile similar to that observed in plasma DNA. We found alterations in different chromosomes in blood spots from 2 patients with high-grade serous ovarian carcinoma. Extending this approach to serial dried blood spots from mouse xenograft models, we detect tumor-derived cell-free DNA and identified ctDNA from the originally grafted ascites.Our data suggest that ctDNA can be detected and monitored in dried blood spots from archived and fresh blood samples, enabling new approaches for sample collection and novel study/trial designs for both patients and in vivo models.

Concerns about adversaries hacking democracy abound, but it’s sheer incompetence we should really be worried about, writes Annalee Newitz

TfL as in Transport for London. Greeeeeaaat.

Earlier this week, a depressing economic prognosis linked on the Drudge Report concluded: "A whole lot more pain is on the way, and it is going to shake our nation to the core."

 

It’s that time of the year in the WHL. News of player signings are a daily occurrence and the Winnipeg Ice’s management team has been busy. On Monday, the club announced ...

George Engelmann, a perennial swing voter in swing-state Wisconsin, says President Donald Trump has won his vote for November's election thanks to his response to the coronavirus pandemic.

THE leader of the Scottish Conservative Party has outlined his plan to stop Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP becoming Scotland's biggest party at the 2021 Scottish election.

Former US president Barack Obama given Joe Biden his endorsement for the 2020 presidential election.

The Vermont senator said progressives who "sit on their hands" in the months ahead would simply enable Republican president Donald Trump's re-election.

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The ruling Democratic Party and a satellite party it created to win proportional representative seats combined to win 180 seats in the 300-seat National Assembly, election officials on Thursday.

Dave Zirin

The post The NFL Is Now Part of Trump’s Reelection Project appeared first on The Nation.

Just a few short months ago, Trump planned to campaign for reelection on the back of a robust economy. That’s now a distant memory.

It should have been the first litmus test of Sir Keir Starmer's appeal - as well as a verdict on whether Boris Johnson's general election earthquake in former Red Wall regions translated into long term local success

The sight of heavily armed, camo-wearing demonstrators at the state capitol building last week was “very bad, very disconcerting,” Rep. Debbie Dingell told Yahoo News.

Is it all moot because of the deadly virus infecting Australia and no I don’t mean the National party ahahaha

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The vice president’s allies are watching two tracks for Pence as he battles the pandemic: one for Trump in 2020 and another for his own potential bid.

The sight of voters waiting in long lines to cast ballots during a pandemic and poll workers wearing HAZMAT suits stunned many Americans.

Still, it's an open question whether the economy will ultimately doom Trump in November. One election model still predicts a Trump victory by a wide margin.

As a rule, if the economy is going well then US presidents get re-elected. If it's going badly, they lose. But will that hold in a global health emergency?

Toss-up contests from Arizona to Florida hold the key for President Trump and Joe Biden.

The Department has reached agreement with New York officials to help ensure that military service members and other U.S. citizens living overseas have the opportunity to vote in the state’s March 31, 2009, special election in the 20th Congressional District.